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Zebedee has teamed up with Amazon.co.uk so you can buy the books reviewed here direct from Amazon for less. Please Note |
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Disaster at the Pole: The Tragedy of the Airship "Italia" and the 1921 Nobile Expedition to the North Pole | £8.30 |
| Wilbur Cross | ||
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Paperback 320 pages (April 1, 2002) Publisher: The Lyons Press | ||
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Synopsis Against the backdrop of Mussolini's rising power, one of Italy's premier aeronautical engineers, Unberto Nobile, gained acclaim by crossing the North Pole in a dirigible. Buoyed by this success, Nobile decided in 1928 to raise the ante and take his newly designed airship to the North Pole, land it, and then return to base. But what started in glory turned to disaster when the airship crashed some 300 miles from civilization. With more than 30 years of research and interviews with surviving participants, Wilbur Cross presents this terrifying tale of tragedy and survival. Here is the story of the airship's survivors, who were stranded on a disintegrating ice floe, and of a determined international team of rescuers, including the famous Amundsen, whose desperate search for the missing Italians led to their own disaster. It is also the story of the controversy surrounding the rescue of Nobile while much of his crew perished in the icy wastelands of the Arctic. Filled with political intrigue, heroics and cruel twists of fate, "Disaster at the Pole" is an account of one of the greatest polar disasters. | ||
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Zeppelin | £7.05 |
| Andrew Donkin | ||
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Hardcover 48 pages (October 1, 2000) Publisher: DK Publishing Inc | ||
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Synopsis This reader uncovers the secret world of spies and is part of a series which is designed for the National Curriculum and the Scottish and Irish Curricula to improve and aid the development of children's reading skills. | ||
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R101 | £14.99 |
| Nick Le Neve Walmsley | ||
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Paperback - 160 pages (19 October, 2000) Sutton Publishing | ||
| His Majesty's Airship R101 was intended to be an aerial flagship, connecting the far-flung outposts of the Empire in a fraction of the time it took to make a sea voyage. Her story is one of grand dreams and fine ideas, brilliant technology, political and romantic intrigue, human weakness, heroism and ultimate tragedy. The ill-starred career of the gigantic airship and her horrific fiery end on a French hillside exert the same kind of fascination reserved for the Titanic and the Hindenburg. Her loss in 1930 sent the nation into shock, marking the end of Britain's interest in airships and even perhaps representing the death throes of the imperial dream. This pictorial history of the airship is based on the archives of the Airship Heritage Trust. These include the records of the Royal Airship Works, which built the R101 and have previously denied all access. | ||
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Disaster at the Pole : Tragedy of the Airship Italia | £15.44 |
| Wilbur Cross | ||
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Hardcover - 320 pages (August 2000) Lyons Press | ||
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The Airship Italia disaster of 1928 has unfortunately been nearly forgotten today, but in its time captivated the world. While attempting to fly to the North Pole under the command of Italian General Umberto Nobile, land on the ice, and return, the airship Italia crashes on the pack ice hundreds of miles from civilization. The survivors are hurled to the ice and can only watch as 6 other survivors float off to their doom on the now uncontrollable derelict airship. | ||
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Zeppelin - the Age of the Airship | £3.99 |
| Andrew Donkin | ||
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Paperback - 48 pages (27 July, 2000) Dorling Kindersley Children's Books | ||
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Synopsis This reader uncovers the secret world of spies and is part of a series which is designed for the National Curriculum and the Scottish and Irish Curricula to improve and aid the development of children's reading skills. | ||
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R101 Airship Disaster | £6.99 |
| Tim Coates (Ed.) | ||
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Paperback - 163 pages (4 November, 1999) The Stationery Office Books | ||
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Synopsis The R.101, larger than any other airship in the world, was built at Cardington, near Bedford, in 1930. Seven hours into her maiden voyage to India, in increasingly threatening weather, she crashed into a hillside at Beauvais in France. Of the 54 people on board, all but eight died instantly. This is the report of the inquiry into the disaster and the tragic loss of life which exposed the pressure from the Air Minister, Lord Thomson, that, whatever the technical causes of the crash, had at the last minute unduly hurried designers, constructors and crew. The early end of the airship in modern commercial flight was the result. Uncovered Editions are historic official papers which have not previously been available in a popular form. | ||
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By Airship to North Pole: An Archaeology of Human Exploration | £16.09 |
| P. J. Capelotti | ||
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Hardcover - 224 pages (July 1999) Rutgers University Press | ||
| The North Pole has long been a lure for adventures. It has drawn those looking for a northwest passage to rich Asian trade routes, and it has attracted those simply hunting fro fame and the glory of being the first to get there. By the end of the 19th century, hundreds had lost their lives pursuing the quest. Inspired in part by the fantasies of Jules Verne and others, the search had intensified to such a degree at the turn of the century that royalty, explorer clubs, and newspapers were funding expeditions. Newspapers in the United States and Europe could not get enough material to satisfy the hunger of their readers for more. This volume chronicles the adventures of Swedish engineer Salomon August Andree, who made the first failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon in 1897, and of American journalist Walter Wellman, who organized and led three unsuccessful air expeditions from 1907 to 1909. The book investigates the stories behind the quests to reach this remote and inhospitable outpost by air and examines how those stories were created and reported by the press. P.J. Capelotti takes readers along of the archaeological remains of early polar aviators, the first such study by a professional archaeologist. He looks at the aviation science of these attempts, as well as the brilliance and folly of those who led them. What he uncovers allows readers to reflect on the distortions of the written historical record, particularly unkind to Wellman, and what that may tell us about our own age of exploration as we look to the last frontiers in space. | ||
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Airship Technology | £75.00 |
| Khoury | ||
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Hardcover - 559 pages (4 March, 1999) Cambridge University Press | ||
| This book provides a unique and indispensable guide to modern airship design and operation. Airships today incorporate advanced technology including composite materials, complex electronic systems, and fly by light controls. They demand the latest theories in aerodynamics, stability and control and require the use of advanced design tools such as numerical finite element structural analysis and computer aided design. This comprehensive and fully illustrated account brings together airship specialists from both universities and industry. After a general introduction, the essentials of aerostatics, aerodynamics, stability and control, propulsion, materials and structures are covered. The following chapters consider weight estimates and control, ground handling and mooring, systems, performance and piloting. The final chapters examine suggestions for improving airship performance, survey unconventional designs, synthesise various design elements, and look at airship roles and economic considerations vital for the success of the airship in the market place. Detailed references are also included. | ||
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British Airships in Pictures: An Illustrated History 1784-1998 | £8.99 |
| Patrick Abbott, Nick Walmsley | ||
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Paperback - 128 pages (January 1999) House of Lochar | ||
| A pictorial history from the bizarre "flights of fancy" of the nineteenth century through the heyday of later years. This is an authoritative, well illustrated chronological history of the British contribution to a practical and valid form of air transport. It gives excellent coverage of the airship's role in peacetime and at war, includes the disasters that interrupted further developments and finishes with a look at more recent developments and a possible renaissance. | ||
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Battlebags: British Airships of the First World War: an Illustrated History | £12.99 |
| Ces Mowthorpe | ||
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Paperback ( 6 February, 1997) Sutton Publishing | ||
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Synopsis Affectionately named "battlebags" by their crews and "pigs" by the local civilian inhabitants, Royal Navy Air Service airships were a familiar sight around Britains's shores. At least 226 airships of all types were built and operated by the Royal Navy during the war in a bid to beat the deadly German U-boat menace. This book describes the development of the airship in the years leading up to World War I and the part it was destined to play in the years that followed. The background to each class is given together with details of individual airships, including where they were built and stationed, their crews and technical information. | ||
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The Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airships : Graf Zeppelin & Hindenbugh | £21.63 |
| Harold G. Dick, Douglas H. Robinson | ||
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Paperback - 226 pages (November 1992) Smithsonian Institute Press | ||
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Synopsis Gathers information about the design, construction, and operation of the two German dirigibles between 1934 and 1938. One of the best airship books written as the author was directly involved in all aspects of the Zeppelin program. No book written so far exceeds this one in illuminating the operations and organization of the passenger airship effort. Pictures never before seen are included. The story is told in context with the political situation of the time. A must read book. | ||
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The British Airship at War, 1914-1918 | £12.95 |
| Patrick Abbott | ||
| Hardcover - 152 pages (10 October, 1989) | ||
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